The sharp bursts of energy that enlivened Urban Hang Suite, the subsequent MTV Unplugged album and Maxwell's SRO concerts are missing. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maxwell's album lacks energy

Web posted July 7, 1998

By Richard Harrington
The Washington Post

Maxwell's new album, Embrya, expands on the restless romantic inquisitions of his 1996 debut, Urban Hang Suite. Like that collection, Embrya is something of a concept album, though the concept is decidedly fuzzier this time around. Maxwell made up the mysterious title word, which he describes as ``an approaching growing transition thought to be contained but destined for broader perception.'' Which might be unkindly translated as ``hanging an ill-fitting suite on a collection of love songs that don't really need the conceptual constraints.''

That's not the only problem with Embrya (Columbia). With his dreamy tenor and flaxen falsetto, Maxwell is clearly pop's reigning lover man, the most effective revivalist of silken '70s soul since the curiously absent D'Angelo. And he's one of the most charismatic, confident performers since the heydays of Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass.

But the sharp bursts of energy that enlivened Urban Hang Suite, the subsequent MTV Unplugged album and Maxwell's SRO concerts are missing. Instead, Embrya's glistening production is almost wholly reliant on supple, insinuating grooves that feel more like cast spells than songs. At its best, it's sensual, late-night mood music. Other times, you'll wish Maxwell had spent more time refining his songs than he apparently did crafting maddeningly obtuse lyrics and such mouthful-titles as ``Eachhoureachsecondeachminuteeachday: Of My Life.''

The album begins with a music-less, unsung Gestation: Mythos (a flighty discourse included in the lyric book) and ends with the title track, a spare, spooky instrumental vamp of no particular substance. In between are nine songs and one slyly funky instrumental (Arroz con Pollo) that examine the various ways in which love and sex intertwine. The best of these -- Everwanting: To Want You to Want and Submerge: Til We Become the Sun -- posit Maxwell as the godfather of romance making offers that can't be refused. The rhythms are cool, languid, smoothly enveloping, near-whispered endearments and exhausted surrenders.

The energy picks up slightly on Gravity: Pushing to Pull, which describes an irresistible, and clearly unresisted, attraction, with just a hint of obsession. It's also one of three tracks written or produced with Stuart Matthewman (Sade and Maxwell's debut). Those tracks -- including the ethereal Drowndeep: Hula and Know These Things: Shouldn't You -- are a little more texturally varied that those produced solely by Maxwell.

The latter song frames the singer's fragile falsetto with hushed strings and whispery saxophone, while the other falsetto showcase, Eachhoureachsecondeachminuteeachday: Of My Life, airily describes romantic and sexual release.

The album's first single, Luxury: Cococure, is one of its more energized tracks, with slinky grooves that suggest the joy of rebounding after a failed romance. I'm You: You Are Me and We Are You, with two verses sung in Spanish (Maxwell is of West Indian-Puerto Rican descent) also serves up some supple funk, while Matrimony: Maybe You offers the possibility of availability, that ``maybe you might be more than just a one night lady/maybe you might be matrimony trying to save me.'' If only somebody would save Maxwell from pretension.

TOP SINGLES

Weekly charts for the nation's best-selling recorded music as they appear in next week's issue of Billboard magazine. Reprinted with permission.

1.The Boy Is Mine, Brandy & Monica (Atlantic) (Platinum)

2. You're Still the One, Shania Twain (Mercury) (Platinum)

3. Too Close, Next (Arista) (Platinum)

4. My Way, Usher (LaFace) (Gold)

5. Ray of Light, Madonna (Warner)

6. Adia, Sara McLachlan (Arista)

7. Come With Me, Puff Daddy featuring Jimmy Page (Epic)

8. My All, Mariah Carey (Columbia) (Platinum)

9. They Don't Know, Jon B. (Yab Yum-550 Music) (Platinum)

10. Everybody (Backstreet's Back), Backstreet Boys (Jive) (Platinum)

11. Make It Hot, Nicole featuring Missy Misdemeanor Elliott & Mocha (The Gold Mine)

12. All My Life, K-Ci & Jojo (MCA)

13. Say It, Voices of Theory (H.O.L.A.-Red Ant)

14. Truly Madly Deeply, Savage Garden (Columbia) (Gold)

15. Sex and Candy, Marcy Playground (Capitol)

TOP ALBUMS

1.City of Angels soundtrack, (Warner Sunset) (Platinum)

2. MP Da Last Don, Master P (No Limit-Priority)

3. Never S-a-y Never, Brandy (Atlantic) (Platinum)

4. Armageddon -- The Album, (Columbia)

5. Hope Floats soundtrack, (Capitol) (Platinum)

6. Godzilla-The Album, (Epic) (Platinum)

7. Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys (Jive) (Platinum)

8. Big Willie Style, Will Smith (Columbia) (Platinum)

9. Come On Over, Shania Twain (Mercury) (Platinum)

10. Bulworth The Soundtrack, (Interscope) (Gold)

11. It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, DMX (Def Jam) (Platinum)

12. Adore, The Smashing Pumpkins (Virgin)

13. The Limited Series, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)

14. Let's Talk About Love, Celine Dion (550 Music)(Platinum)

15. Capital Punishment, Big Punisher (Loud) (Gold)

Country singles

1.The Shoes You're Wearing, Clint Black (RCA)

2. That's Why I'm Here, Kenny Chesney (BNA)

3. I Can Still Feel You, Collin Raye (Epic)

4. If You See Him-If You See Her, Reba, Brooks & Dunn (MCA Nashville-Arista Nashville)

5. A Man Holdin' On (To A Woman Lettin' Go), Ty Herndon (Epic)

6. Now That I Found You, Terri Clark (Mercury)

7. There Goes My Baby, Trisha Yearwood (MCA)

8. To Make You Feel My Love, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)

9. I Just Want to Dance With You, George Strait (MCA)

10. From This Moment On, Shania Twain with Bryan White (Mercury)

11. There's Your Trouble, Dixie Chicks (Monument)

12. I Do (Cherish You), Mark Wills (Mercury)

13. It Would Be You, Garry Allan (Decca)

14. Happy Girl, Martina McBride (RCA)

15. Commitment, LeAnn Rimes (Curb)

R&B singles

1.The Boy Is Mine, Brandy & Monica (Atlantic) (Platinum)

2. They Don't Know-Are U Still Down, Jon B. (Yab Yum-550 Music) (Platinum)

3. Make It Hot, Nicole featuring Missy Misdemeanor Elliott & Mocha (The Gold Mine)

4. Too Close, Next (Arista) (Platinum)

5. My Way, Usher (LaFace) (Gold)

6. Still Not a Player, Big Punisher featuring Joe (Loud)

7. I Get Lonely, Janet featuring Backstreet (Virgin)(Gold)

8. Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are), Pras Michel featuring Ol' Dirty B------ (expletive deleted) & Introducing Mya (Interscope)

9. My All-Breakdown, Mariah Carey (Columbia) (Platinum)

10. It's All About Me, Mya and Sisqo (Interscope) (Gold)

11. Friend of Mine, Kelly Price (Island)

12. Say It, Voices of Theory (H.O.L.A.-Red Ant)

13. The Arms of the One Who Loves You, Xscape (So So Def) (Gold)

14. Do Your Thing, 7 Mile (Crave)

15. All My Life-Don't Rush (Take Love Slowly), K-Ci & Jojo (MCA)

Modern rock tracks

1.Iris, Goo Goo Dolls (Warner Sunset)

2. Closing Time, Semisonic (MCA)

3. Shimmer, Fuel (550 Music)

4. Flagpole Sitta, Harvey Danger (Slash-London-Island)

5. Ava Adore, The Smashing Pumpkins (Virgin)

6. Inside Out, Eve 6 (RCA)

7. One Week, Barenaked Ladies (Reprise)

8. The Way, Fastball (Hollywood)

9. Push It, Garbage (Almo Sounds-Interscope)

10. Intergalactic, Beastie Boys (Grand Royal)

11. Jump Right In, The Urge (Immortal)

12. Saint Joe on the School Bus, Marcy Playground (Capitol)

13. I Will Buy You a New Life, Everclear (Capitol)

14. Wishlist, Pearl Jam (Epic)

15. Heroes, The Wallflowers (Epic)